In The Line Of Duty
by Jennifer Hart
Summary: This is what I was afraid was going to happen on Twilight. For the July 2005 challenge. This does contain character death and starts just after Kate’s last line.
1. Darkness Before Dawn

**Title: In The Line of Duty**

**Rating: T**

**Classification: Suspense/Tragedy, Alternate Universe**

**Spoilers: Bete Noire, Reveille, Twilight, Kill Ari, Hiatus**

**Disclaimers: If I owned them, this wouldn't say A/U, would it?**

**Summary: This is what I was afraid was going to happen on Twilight. For the July 2005 challenge. This does contain character death and starts just after Kate's last line.**

Darkness closed around him as he fell. Around him voice slowly grew indistinct. New ones began to replace them.

"_Daddy, what's Semper Fi?"_

"_It's short for Semper Fidelis. That's Latin, for Always Faithful."_

"_What about when you're not a Marine anymore?"_

"_Doesn't matter."_

"_Why do you have to do that?"_

"_We don't have to, Kelly. We choose to. It's a matter of trust."_

Those were the last words he heard before everything went silent.

0

"Sketch and photograph, then cover him and get him out of here." Tony's quiet words were a near echo of Gibbs' on the sniper killings over a year before.

Kate nodded, no hint of expression on her face. There would be time for reactions later. Right now they had a job to do.

Tony made his way over to the ladder and climbed down from the rooftop, walking over to McGee. Other agents were starting to arrive now, both NCIS and FBI. He would have to do it now.

"Tony!" The younger agent caught sight of him and rushed toward him, his expression panicked. "You're..."

"It's all right McGee," Tony said quietly.

"But you're covered..." Tony closed his eyes, quickly cutting him off.

"It's not mine." He saw a pair of FBI agents standing near the wall and knew they would hear every word. This would be a conversation that every federal agent would be able to quote word-for-word by the end of the day. Tony shook his head, then reached his hand out and steadily gripped McGee's shoulder.

"McGee." Tony drew a deep breath. "We came under fire up on the roof. We...we lost Gibbs."

"Lost...you mean..." The young agent took an involuntary step back. "How...how could that happen? I just spoke to him?"

"He took a round in the back just after we finished taking down the cell. Sniper shot. Probably Ari."

McGee shook his head. "But the vest..."

"Doesn't stop a hollow-point slug." Tony's cell phone rang and he flipped it open with a hollow, "What?"

"Tony!" Kate's voice was frantic. "We've got a problem."

0

"What the Sam Hill happened up there, Officer David?"

It was six hours later and Tony had finally gotten the Mossad control officer on the phone.

"Agent DiNozzo..."

"You said there wouldn't be any danger."

"There shouldn't have been!" Ziva David replied. Tony gave a bitter laugh of disbelief. "Oh, really?" He rapidly traversed the length of the squadroom next to the Most Wanted Wall. He had a new photo he planned to put up that night. "Well, how it was supposed to happen doesn't help us much now, does it?"

"Agent DiNozzo, may I remind you that when we discussed this operation..."

"When we were discussed the operation we were talking about shooting Gibbs with blanks. Not armor piercing ammo!"

"Agent DiNozzo, I don't know what happened up there other than apparently Al Qaeda didn't trust Officer Haswari and sent up another sniper," Ziva told him.

"What happened, Officer David, is that your Boy Wonder over there was a backstabbing sack of excrement," Tony retorted. "He played us and he played you."

"Ari Haswari is a loyal Mossad operative," Ziva snapped."

"Prove it," Tony answered. "If you're so convinced of his innocence, then give us his location and let us bring him in for questioning."

"You'll blow his cover."

"Well, that's better than blowing a man's back apart with nine-millimeter hollowpoints, isn't it? You know what we call those bullets in this country, Officer David?" Tony paused for a moment.

"What?"

Tony's voice was hoarse.

"Cop-killers." The emphasis on the last word was unmistakable.

There was a long silence before Ziva finally said, "Agent Gibbs...he is dead, then?"

Tony took a deep breath, then another, his brain racing to find the words. Then, barely audible, "In surgery. Fifteen minutes ago."

TBC

If this seems a little confusing I promise, I'll explain everything next chapter, which should be up by the weekend.


	2. Accepting The Torch

**Chapter 2: Taking The Baton **

**A/N: A big thank you to Keeter, who informed me a nine-millimeter hollow-point wouldn't go through a bullet-proof vest. If someone could let me know what calibre bullet would, I'll replace that but for now, I'll just refer to it as an armor-piercing round. Also, I've included a rather long flashback in here, so I'm only italicizing the first and last paragraph to make it easier to read.**

They heard it before the elevator reached the third floor. A hammer pounding against a wall. Kate and McGee exchanged looks as the door opened to the squadroom.

Most of the lights had been dimmed for night, but there was still enough to illuminate Tony, standing next to the "Most Wanted Wall." He was swinging a hammer for all he was worth, attaching Ari's photo alongside the rest of his kind. Kate swallowed hard and stepped forward. "Tony."

He didn't answer, just swung the hammer again with a resounding bang. Kate raised her voice. "Tony!"

He turned to look at her and she gasped. Sweat was pouring down his face and his chest was heaving erratically. Kate reached forward to touch his shoulder. "Tony..."

"Sit-rep!" he barked, jerking away from her. Kate swallowed.

"Um, we retrieved shell casings on the roof and Abby's getting the bullets from the hospital."

"McGee!" The younger agent hurried forward.

"I...um..called Agent Burley. He's flying out on a C-12—should be here around eleven hundred."

"Where's Ducky?"

"Ducky's..." Kate's eyes caught sight of Ari's taunting smile on the wall and she jerked them shut. "Ducky is still sitting in the same chair at Bethseda. Palmer's with him." She opened her eyes and looked directly at Tony. "He's not doing well," she whispered.

Tony nodded briskly. "I'll take care of it. I want the two of you to start calling every NCIS agent you can find, from either DC or Norfolk. I don't care if you wake them up, pull them from vacation, whatever. I want an agent on every highway, airport gate, bus terminal. Understand — they see Ari Haswari, I don't care what it takes, they take him alive." He set his jaw. "This time he's going to admit responsibility." He strode towards the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Kate called. Tony stopped and looked at her.

"To take care of Ducky."

0

When Tony entered the waiting room he wasn't sure if the figure with Palmer was an M.E. or a Cadaver. The older man's face was a sickly gray and his eyes were staring vacantly at the doors Gibbs had last entered. Palmer sat at his side, one hand awkwardly placed on his mentor's shoulder. Tony bit his lip and walked towards them.

Palmer looked up and a relieved expression came over his face. "Agent DiNozzo." He turned and gently tapped Ducky's arm. "Dr. Mallard, Agent..."

"It's okay, Jimmy," Tony said softly. He motioned with his head towards the door. "I'll take care of him. Palmer nodded rapidly. Clearly seeing his supervisor in such a fragile state was more than he could handle.

Tony waited until Palmer had gone before carefully sitting down in the chair he'd vacated and putting his arm around Ducky's shaking shoulders. The M.E. stirred slightly at the touch, then opened his mouth.

"You know, I never had any children of my own. Marie and I wanted to, but she passed away while we were still trying." Ducky smiled sadly. "We'd actually been married for eight years by then, but we weren't ready to start a family until just before that. At least, we thought we weren't ready." He shook his head. "We thought we had more time."

Tony blinked. For all of Ducky's stories, he hadn't even known the older man had been married. Before he could respond, Ducky started speaking again.

"But Jethro, he became like the son I never had." Ducky chuckled. "Although I certainly didn't expect it when we first met. I actually wasn't sure what to make of him." He shot Tony a sidelong glance. "Did I ever tell you that story?"

Tony smiled. "No," he said softly. "I don't think you did."

"Ah. Well, he'd been transferred into replace Special Agent Louis Burke. You've heard of him, I imagine."

Tony nodded. Agent Burke had been left unable to walk after an explosion while he was trying to arrest a group of sailors trying to smuggle small arms.

"He'd just been assigned a new Probationary Field Agent two weeks before the incident. Jethro had just finished a tour of sea duty, so they brought him in. Yes, back then teams were only two agents, not three or four. That didn't change until a year later."

0

_"Dr. Mallard!" A dark-haired man stepped through the silver doors. He held out a hand. "I'm Gibbs, Agent Burke's replacement? I understand he had an open homicide—" He stopped short at the sight of the body on the table. "What the Sam Hill happened to him?"_

Ducky raised an eyebrow. "You didn't read the file?"

"Well yeah, but..." Gibbs gestured to the corpse. "He's blue!"

"Which was noted in the file," Ducky replied patiently.

"Yeah, but Doctor, it didn't say he was _this_ blue." Ducky chuckled.

"Yes, it is a rather vivid hue, isn't it? Yes, our Petty Officer here was poisoned."

Gibbs leaned over the body, studying it with wide-eyed fascination. "With what?"

"Sodium nitrate." Ducky replied. Yes, it depletes the tissues of oxygen and you literally suffocate from the inside out."

"And the lack of oxygen turns the entire body blue." Gibbs stared at the corpse, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Cool."

"Well, I'd hardly think he thought so," Ducky said dryly.

Just then Gibbs' cell phone rang and he picked it up. "Yeah, Gibbs." He listened for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Gas the truck, I'll meet you up there."

Gibbs hung up the phone and turned to Ducky. "Two JAGs were found shot in a Georgetown home. One's dead, the other's on the way to hospital."

Ducky raised his eyebrows. "Let's go."

0

The NCIS truck pulled up to the residence only a moment after the M.E. vehicle. It was a peaceful-looking neighborhood, with modest houses, neat hedges, and gentle streetlights that were illuminating the now dark street.

Gibbs got out of the truck as Ducky started up the sidewalk and turned to Stan. "Canvass the neighborhood, see if anyone saw or heard anything."

Stan nodded. "On it." He hurried off as Gibbs started up the walk. Suddenly a crashing noise came from the house. Gibbs grabbed his gun and bolted for the door.

He could see the kitchen door was flung open and Ducky lying on the floor near the kitchen island. Gibbs rushed to the door in time to see a man bolting down the back alley, a pair of police officers in hot pursuit. Satisfied that angle was being taken care of, Gibbs grabbed a towel from the stove and hurried back over to Ducky, who was struggling to sit up.

"Don't." Gibbs pressed the towel against the gash on the older man's temple. "You could have a concussion."

Ducky ignored him and pushed into a sitting position, supported reluctantly by Gibbs. "I think I'd recognize it if I had," he remarked.

Gibbs chuckled and ducked his head. "Sorry, Doctor."

"Oh, enough of that. Around here everyone calls me Ducky."

Gibbs smiled. "Okay, Ducky."

Ducky nodded in satisfaction. "And you? Do you have a first name?"

"Not one that I use," Gibbs said firmly. At Ducky's prodding lock, he finally admitted, "My middle name, Jethro."

"Ah, that's Hebrew," Ducky answered. "Translates to excellence, kindly, and wise. Also has the spiritual connotation of abundant praise."

A police detective entered juste then. Gibbs quickly got to his feet and walked over to him. "Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS. They told me the scene had been cleared."

"It was," the detective said defensively. Gibbs pointed over at Ducky.

"Then how did that happen?" The officer seemed at a loss for words and Gibbs sighed. "What've you got?"

The Detective lead him into the living room. "Lt. Neil Weisgerber," he said, gesturing to the young man lying dead on the floor. "His CO, Commander Lee Gregory was rushed to the hospital. Still no word on his condition. They were working late, preparing a case that they supposed to be presenting in court tomorrow."

"Why not work at the office?" Gibbs asked.

"The Commander's a single father. Apparently if he has to work late like this he brings the paperwork home whenever possible. Anyway, they were in the living room when, from what we could tell, someone came to the door shot them both," the Detective explained.

"Where were the children when this happened?" Gibbs asked anxiously.

""Downstairs, playing a game. "Blind-Man's Bluff," I think they called it.

"Classic game, especially at Christmastime among the Victorians." Ducky had gotten up and followed them into the room. He nodded over to the Christmas tree in the corner. "I see they've already started decorating."

The Detective rolled his eyes. "It's barely been a week since Veteran's Day. They're as bad as the stores."

"Hey Doctor—Ducky, do you have a time of death on him yet?" Gibbs called.

Ducky fixed him with a glare. "Jethro, contrary to the worlds of _Diagnosis Murder_ and _Murder She Wrote_, one cannot determine time of death by merely looking at the body. I mean, there are several factors to consider. The temperature of the room, for instance. I worked one case..."

The Detective shot Gibbs a sympathetic glance. "Sorry you asked?"

"Where are the children now?" Gibbs asked quietly.

"_At the neighbor's_. _The boy's ten, the girl's six." The Detective checked his notes. "Names are Jack and Carissa."_

0

Ducky looked over at Tony, a sad smile on his face. "Jethro looked after those children himself until a family member arrived and even then he still visited regularly. Still does, too."

Tony nodded. "Sounds like him."

"Yes." Ducky sighed. "Tony, what are we going to do?"

0

"How's Ducky?" Kate asked as Tony walked back into the bullpen.

Tony took a deep breath. "Like you said, he's not doing well. The doctor's got him sedated on a general unit. Where are we at?"

"Well, Abby was able to pull couple prints off the cartridge casings we got form the roof. If Mossad would release Ari's prints we could clear this up once and for all, but so far no luck. And the Director wants to see you."

"Great."

0

When Tony entered the Director's office, there were two women seated inside. The first, a young, casually-dressed figure, sat in a chair in front of the desk. The other, an older redhead in a business suit, was sitting in the Director's chair. Tony nodded briefly to the younger woman before turning his attention to the redhead.

"Who are you?" he asked. The woman stood up.

"Director Shepherd." She nodded towards the other woman. "Officer Ziva David, Israeli Mossad."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Director of what?"

"As of today, NCIS." She at down again. "Have a seat."

Tony didn't budge. "Since when does NCIS have a new Director?"

"As I said, as of today," she said shortly. "Now bring me up to speed on this operation."

"I would have thought Officer David would have filled you in," Tony said in a level voice. The Director shot him an exasperated look.

"Do you always let other agencies do your reporting for you?" Tony set his teeth.

"No, ma'am," he answered. He took a deep breath, relating the case details up to when Fornell had arrived at their office.

Director Shepherd nodded. "I've worked with Agent Fornell. Continue, please."

"When we became aware that Ari had been assigned by Al Qaeda to kill Agent Gibbs, we contacted Mossad where we spoke with Officer David." He glanced over at the dark-haired agent, and she gave him a quick nod and a smile.

"After some discussion, it was decided that the best course of action would be to take down the Al Qaeda cell, but let it appear that Ari had in fact killed Agent Gibbs. We would put him in a bullet-proof vest and Ari would shoot him with a blank bullet. Then he would be put into protective custody for a short time and reports would be released that he had been killed. Officer David, as Ari's control officer, was to relay that." Tony glared at her. "Only something obviously got lost in the translation."

Ziva started to her feet, but was stopped by Director Shepherd quickly putting a hand up. "Agent DiNozzo, I realize that you are upset, but that was out of line."

"My apologies Director, Officer David." If the Director caught the note of sarcasm she ignored it.

"Tell me about the shooting," she ordered.

"We'd just finished taking down the terrorists when we saw Agent Gibbs take a hit to the back and go down. Thinking it was just part of the sting I pretended to check his pulse, then told my partner, Agent Todd, to sketch and take photos, then bag him." Tony's voice caught in his throat and he took a deep breath.

"I headed down the ladder to check on the fourth member of our team, Agent McGee. Seconds later I got the call on the radio from Agent Todd, who told me that Agent Gibbs had in fact been hit by an armor-piercing bullet. We...hadn't seen the blood at first because of the dark jackets we were all wearing." Tony shook his head and stared at a spot on the wall. "We called the ambulance, and the rushed him into surgery, where...where..."

"Where he died on the operating table a few hours later," Director Shepherd finished quietly. "Yes, Ziva told me?"

Tony shot another look Ziva's way. "Did she also tell you that she doesn't believe Ari is responsible?"

"Ari is a loyal Mossad operative—" Ziva began, but Tony cut her off.

"Your 'loyal Mossad operative' took four of our people hostage a year ago, shot two of them, and killed an FBI agent. He just about blew up a café of innocent civilians the other night. How can you still believe he's on your side?"

"He was not the person who killed Agent Gibbs on the rooftop!"

"Prove it!" Tony moved so that he was standing only a foot away from her. "Our lab tech pulled a couple of prints off the cartridge casings we recovered. If you're so freakin' convinced Ari's innocent, then give us his prints for comparison." Tony smiled sarcastically. "As a 'loyal Mossad operative,' I'm sure his prints are on file."

"That's enough!" Director Shepherd turned to the Israeli agent. "Ziva, will you please step outside for a moment? I need to speak with Agent DiNozzo privately."

0

"So this is the prick we're after?" Stan Burley asked.

He'd arrived a short time earlier and was standing in front of Ari's photo on the Most Wanted Wall with Kate.

Kate nodded. "That's from a video feed of when he took Autopsy hostage last year. He shot two people then, too. Including..." Her voice shook. "Including Gibbs."

Stan stared at her. "And yet Mossad still claims he's one of the good guys?"

"According to them, he was making his bones with Al Qaeda."

There was no mistaking the bitterness in her voice, or the overwhelming emotion that lingered underneath. Stan reached over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Kate, don't worry," he said softly. "We're going to get him this time."

TBC...


	3. Bringing It Home

0

"Special Agent Todd." Kate listened for a moment before her face slowly relaxed into a tired smile. "Thank you." She hung up the phone and turned to face Tony, Stan, and McGee.

"That was Keri, one of my old co-workers in the Secret Service. Treasury got tipped off to an Al Qaeda cell that was passing phony Franklins. They just got confirmation—one of the members is Ari Haswari.

Tony exhaled with relief and a grin stole over McGee's face. "Yes!"

Stan just shook his head. "It's about time."

Two months had passed since that day on the rooftop. Stan had transferred in to work on a full-time basis with the team, although nobody could bring themselves to use what they still considered Gibbs' desk. Instead, a cubicle wall had been removed to add a fifth desk to the working area.

Mossad had been distinctly uncooperative during the entire time period, refusing to release Ari's fingerprints or whereabouts, while steadfastly maintaining his innocence. A further obstacle had come in the form of Director Shepherd, who insisted they needed concrete evidence that Ari had been responsible. Even Fornell had been maintaining his distance.

The team hadn't been completely without allies though, thanks to Kate's old contacts at Secret Service. All it had taken was learning what had happened to Gibbs, together with Ari's apparent obsession with someone who had once been one of their own, and word had spread rapidly among the field agents and undercover operatives. A tip that was apparently paying off.

"They're planning a takedown of the group tonight," Kate continued. "And said that under the circumstances, they would consider a joint op."

Tony got to his feet. "I'll brief the Director." McGee stood up and embraced Kate.

"This is it," he whispered. "This one's for Gibbs."

0

At approximately 8:00 that evening, four NCIS agents stood outside what claimed to be a used bookstore downtown. With them was a group of Secret Service agents. Everyone had their guns drawn and were wearing body armor.

Director Shepherd had not been happy to learn about the way the team had gone behind her back with the Secret Service agents and had nearly refused to go ahead with the joint op. In the end, she'd finally acquiesced, with the warning that NCIS was not to use lethal force on Ari unless directly threatened. The team had reluctantly agreed, considering Tony's rationale that it would make the bastard have to confess his true colors to his own. However nobody was making any promises as to what would happen if either of Ari's shoulders found themselves in direct sight of a SIG-Sauer.

The NCIS agents had also been asked to reiterate again to the Secret Service agents that Ari was an undercover government operative and every precaution was to be taken to bring him in alive. Of course, if that proved impossible in an intense gun battle, no one promised to be particularly upset about that, either.

A dispatch came over the ear receivers that the agents in the back were in position. The Secret Service leader in the front acknowledged, then turned to the others with him. "Ready?" There was a collective nod of assent and the agent turned back.

"We go on three. One...two..." His foot burst the door from its frame on the third count.

A wave of gunfire broke across the store.

0

A half hour later, Tony emerged from the building, tears streaming silently down his cheeks. He stopped just to the side of the door and leaned his hands on his knees, barely able to breathe.

Down the street to his left was an ambulance, preparing to leave with Stan Burley. He was semi-conscious after being hit just below the left shoulder. His comment to Tony as he was being wheeled out was, "Well, these bastards are consistent, anyway."

In the building behind him were eight corpses, in the process of being photographed. Already they were growing cold in the damp chill permeating the old cement walls. Seven of the bodies were Al Qaeda terrorists. The eighth was NCIS Special Agent Caitlin Todd. She'd been hit in the head with a terrorist round midway through the gun battle and killed instantly. Tony had seen her go down, moments after she took out two terrorists, and he'd promptly emptied five bullets into a third. None of the dead were Ari.

0

"Abby compared all of the prints on the shell casings found on the roof to the seven terrorists killed at the book store."

It was two days later, and Tony, McGee, and Stan were assembled in the Director's office, together with Ziva David.

"She was able to find a match," the Director continued. "To this man." She pulled a photo up on the screen. "Aswan Hassif, suspected in several bombings and attempts, including one on Addington International's Industrial Research Facility in Cincinnati."

"He is someone Ari had referred to in a contact report," Ziva spoke up. "Actually, he was the head of the Al Qaeda cell who asked Ari to kill Agent Gibbs originally. Apparently he changed his mind."

"The fingerprints on the casings prove conclusively that Hassif is the person responsible for shooting Special Agent Gibbs," Director Shepherd told them. "And in case any of you were wondering, according to Ballistics, he was killed by Special Agent Stan Burley." She offered him a brief nod of recognition for his actions, then turned to Tony.

"Agent DiNozzo, now that this case has been concluded, I think we can pull the protection detail, don't you?"

No, he didn't, and she knew it. He'd tried to tell her that for an hour-and-a-half earlier that day, but she'd stood firm. Now, Tony merely looked her steadily in the eye, not saying a word.

"Protection detail?" Ziva looked at him in confusion as Director Shepherd reached for her phone.

"Cynthia, please send them in," the Director requested. A second later the door opened, and Ducky entered, pushing a man in a wheelchair.

"Officer Ziva David?" Director Shepherd said. "I would like you to meet Special Agent Jethro Gibbs."

Gibbs' face was paler than usual and he still looked fairly weak. There was also a light in his expressive blue eyes that both Stan and Tony had noticed was missing. But that didn't make it any less of a welcome sight to see him wheeled through the door.'

"Agent Gibbs," Ziva said quietly.

"Officer David," Gibbs replied.

"I was told that you had died in surgery."

"Well, technically, he did," Ducky answered. "His heart stopped on the table—twice actually. But they were able to bring him back. Still, it was touch-and-go there for quite a while."

Ziva nodded before shooting Tony a quick glance. "Agent DiNozzo neglected to give me that information."

"Like you neglected to give us information on Ari or his fingerprints for comparison purposes?" Tony said pointedly. "What can I say, we didn't want a 'trusted Mossad operative' to hear he'd been unsuccessful. That most certainly could have blown his cover."

"Agent DiNozzo, that's enough," Director Shepherd ordered. "In case you didn't hear me earlier, the fingerprints are a match."

THE END...KIND OF

**A/N: I realize this is probably a crappy place to end off. However, Act 4 of Kill Ari II was simply too profound and well done for me to be able to write something that claimed it didn't exist, even if it was only a fanfic. So I simply did my best to write something that would allow my alternate version of what happened to co-exist with that last act.**

**And PS – My original thought when watching _Twilight_ was that Ari would have to shoot Gibbs to maintain his cover, but that we'd learn it was blanks. But after seeing what he actually did, I know there was no way that jerk would just be satisfied with blanks and not double-cross the team. So I had to make it a real bullet after all.**


End file.
